Student Bloggers

It is now between week 9 and week 10 here in Oz, this magical week known as lecture recess. It’s not something we have in the States but something that we really should! All it is, is just a week where you get a break from lecture and class in the middle (or ⅔ mark) of the semester. It is honestly, one of the greatest things. You know, as college students, we can get behind more than we’d like in our study time, our assignments, our sleeping time, or even our socializing time. It’s hard to fit everything in, especially by the 9th week of classes. So having a week to be able to catch up on it all is just so overwhelmingly wonderful.

So since my last blog was more about catching up to what I did over my first few months and really just a broad overview of everything, I figured I’d get a little more into detail about a few things. Like norms, and culture, and lectures, and just really how everything works down under.

To start off, while I recommend doing some research on the country you’re visiting or studying in, I also recommend not doing too much. You can’t believe EVERYTHING you hear about a place until you really see it for yourself. Research, you know, the basics. Things like semester dates, weather, currency (DEFINITELY CURRENCY), the best universities for your major, cost of living, legal ages, prominent language and phrases, and maybe a few other things that you’re interested to know. Nothing too in depth. Then, when you get here, you have an excuse to tell yourself to go out and get into the culture first hand. You can talk to the locals and really ask them and compare with your home country. I do it at least once a day at dinner or in class and it is really marvelous. You learn so much by talking to people and asking them questions or answering theirs! Believe it or not, as many misconstrued stereotypes and ideas you have about their country, they probably have as much, if not more, about yours. Which is not a bad thing! Because than you can confirm or deny it; you get to explain, defend, or criticize it from your perspective as a native to that country. It may sound kind of intimidating but trust me, it isn’t. AT ALL. It’s probably the most riveting thing you can do. It brings up so many different topics and conversations. And the best part is hearing all the crazy stereotypes that people from other countries think of yours, and being able to laugh at them. DON’T. BE. AFRAID. Be yourself. Immerse yourself in the questions, and answers, the culture, and the people. You never know if you’re going to get another chance.

I’ve learned a lot about Australia and the differences between it and America. To be perfectly honest, one of the main reasons I picked Australia, was because I assumed that the culture wasn’t going to be that much different from America. I’m pretty surprised at the differences though; a lot of them fall within language and education. Uni here is a lot different than back home. Between lectures, majors, colleges, and food it’s hard to find the similarities. And with the differences in language, sometimes those differences become even greater.

I go to a small uni, just like I do back home. So the class sizes and campus size is a piece a cake. Colleges, which is what the dorms are called, are different though. Back home, I’m used to sharing with at least one roommate, and had up to 3 at one time. But here, at JCU, I’m in a single; everyone is. It’s abnormal to them to share a dorm room. And that’s at practically all of the colleges here, aside from the apartment style ones. With colleges come the dining halls, right? This took me, and quite honestly is still taking me, time to get used to. In America, you have a couple of dining halls and you get to choose where you eat, as compared to here, where each college has their own dining hall and you have to eat at that one. At my uni at home, one of our two dining halls has set times for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, which is normal. But between those times we have light brunch, or light lunch where there’s cold food out like salads and such so that if you’re hungry then you can get something. At my uni here, they have set times for breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, and dinner and if you miss those times, well it just kind of sucks for you. For someone who loves to eat food as much as me, it is quite a hard transition. I’d be lying if I said it was easy but having a kitchenette and a Woolies (nickname for Woolworths, a supermarket) at the edge of campus really helps.

Lectures are a lot different. Or maybe they’re not. It really depends on where you go to school. I have classes 3 days a week. In that time, I have 2 lectures and 2 tutorials. Tutorials are different, but they’re also something I think should be added to the American curriculum. They’re basically an hour where if you have questions or comments on something you can ask the professor and where the professor gets students more personally involved in the material. They aren’t too much and they are very helpful. Lectures are 2 hour intervals of class, just a normal thing. However, they’re only once a week. This is really different for me. Sure, I’ve taken a class that was once a week, but it was also a 3 hour long lecture to make up for it. All of my other classes have always been 2 to 3 days a week. It is very independent here. Which, also, isn’t a bad thing. I quite like it and, as someone who is a disorganized disaster walking, I’ve settled into it pretty easily and very well. I don’t personally have any labs or practicals, but some classes do have them. Make sure that before you sign up for classes at your abroad uni you know everything that is required of you regarding them and your participation for them.

Bit of advice: when you’re looking at classes to take, make a list of about 10 to 15 you really want to take per semester abroad, then narrow the list to about 7 or 8. If you’re having a hard time narrowing it down like I did, try to see which of them fit into a schedule the best together. It really helped me in picking between all the classes that I really wanted to take.

Be aware that majors work a little differently here. In America, all degrees need at least 4 years of undergrad to get a BA, but that is definitely not the case here in Australia. A lot, probably most, majors finish their degree in 3 years. The major deviants of this is degrees like medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, veterinary, etc. So this is definitely going to affect the classes you can and will take. Depending on the course, it may start with a 3 meaning year 3, which may be a senior class and be above what you’re capable of doing. You should also be aware that ‘freshman’, ‘sophomore’, ‘junior’, and ‘senior’ aren’t used here. I don’t know whether that’s an all of Australia thing or not; but it’s gotten a lot of my friends here confused while we were talking quite a few times. Instead they use ‘first’, ‘second’, ‘third’, ‘fourth’, etc. year. It takes a little time to get used to saying and hearing it but once the meaning is explained to both parties, you’ll be ‘right. And that goes for all language differences. If something someone says doesn’t make sense, it’s most likely because one of the words they’re talking about mean something different to them than to you. Just ask and they’ll explain and trust me, they’ll be doing the same thing to you. Never be embarrassed; we’re just two different cultures.